002 - hot wheelz
"hot wheelz" 16x20 digital painting
when i was a kid, one of my favorite things was to play with was my rather large collection of hot wheels toys i had collected over the years. i would set up race tracks, fake construction sites and just see how intricate and crazy i could make courses. I also loved car chases and would even stage lil getaway scenarios, it was fun as hell!
hot wheels were (and still are) a core reason i really love cars and the car community. i'd also play games like forza, need for speed underground and midnight club that would get me thinking about body styles, liveries and the aesthetic of cars. a couple family members of mine have owned 4th gen and 5th gen mustangs. i personally own a 6th gen GT and i quite like it :)
this summer one of the big things i wanted to finally tackle and learn is how i can implement 3D into my workflow. i've sparingly used it in the past for some complicated perspectives i tried but i've seen a rise in a painterly/stylized 3D art-style gain popularity (thanks arcane!) and it's been inspiring work to see! the plan is to learn how to model, texture and rig models that i can use to speed up some of the tedious work. I also want to experiment with animation my illustrations. my thought was if i'm going to build something in 3D why don't i try and add movement as well? for the first few pieces that use this technique i'm trying will be static but i'm being mindful of motion when laying out the composition on these. my goal isn't to create 'final' models and renders that would be mostly untouched by me. i like going back over everything with a hand painting layer. i can get pretty picky when it comes to the textures and color in my work so i wanted to be smart with my use of 3D to make sure everything meshes.
the "bosStang 65" model i created in blender
for this illustration i started in my sketchbook, like i do for most illustrations, with a couple thumbnail sketches. i already had the composition down when i started and one i had a more rough version i opened up blender. the model was textured by hand by creating a custom UV that I bought into procreate to paint on. i ended up throwing most of it out lol. it just wasn't looking how i wanted and then i downloaded this paint system by tawan sunflower and used it to get the toon shading i was looking for right inside of blender. the lighting wasn't too hard but when i added a couple iterations of the models into the illustration in procreate, i knew i was heading in the right direction.
layer breakdown of how i painted over the 3D model
after modeling the car, i would do a quick viewport render and add it to my illustration. i repeated this a few times to get the colors right and the perspective right. its not too separate with the way i would push and pull colors before but knowing the perspective and rendering are mostly locked in helps me focus on color and mood. eventually it all just fell into place.
the modeling i did was fine. it had been a while since i had done anything like this but i think i got back into it well enough. i want to try and model a couple more cars and then throw them all into one big scene together.
remember, slow down to speed up
made with intention by human hands, michael